Salzburg, Austria

November 2006

Ryanair had been selling discount flights on the internet like there was no tomorrow and it seemed rude not to take advantage of them. I had also failed miserably to think of a birthday present for Lori, my girlfriend, so I gave her a list of cities to choose from for the weekend of November 24th. She opted for Salzburg, Austria so that she could say she had visited another country. I had fancied Turin, Italy, which I had never seen, but I didn’t mind. It had been nearly twenty years since I had taken a couple of tour groups around European cities which included Salzburg.

We flew from Stansted Airport at 6.30pm on the Friday night after the long queues to check in and the pedantic security checks. We landed at the small Salzburg airport at 9pm, 25 minutes ahead of schedule and caught a local bus into the centre which was only 5km away. It dropped us right outside our reserved four star hotel – the Austrotel Hotel, just outside the old city and next to the Mirabell Gardens . I had offered Lori a dorm bed at the hostel but for some reason she wanted a decent place to stay. I must be going soft. We had a spacious and warm top floor en suite room with all the trimmings for about £50 a night – a good price for Salzburg with its non stop tourist season. Austrotel Webpage

Salzburg background: The area was settled by the Romans and then became a provincial capital when religion moved in and set up a bishopric in the 8th Century. It was incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire in the 13th century and ruled a large area including parts of Germany and Italy and made its money from the local salt mines (Salt = Salz in German). In the 17th Century, an influential archbishop (Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau – crazy name, crazy guy), instigated the baroque rebuilding of the city which has survived to this day despite all the wars. Salzburg finally became part of Austria in 1816, long after its most famous citizen Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart had sprung his mortal coil (1756 - The city used Mozart to draw in the tourists until the 1960s movie ‘The Sound of Music’ gave even more tourists an additional reason to visit the city. I remember watching that movie in about 1967, aged seven and hating the whole Von Trapp family. Smug bastards.

Salzburg is a pleasantly sized city of 145,000 people and the Guidebooks wax lyically about it and rightly so. The Lonely Person’s Guide said that the city “stands in a breathtaking setting and is rich with magnificent architectural treasures. The baroque church spires of the old town, with the fortress rising in the back of them, are an unforgettable sight.” Which is true and probably why UNESCO added it to its World Heritage sites. The city centre is split by the light blue Salzrach River. The compact old town, on the left bank is mostly a walking area devoid of cars beneath the Festung Hohensalzburg fortress. The new part of town (bombed during World War Two), lies on the right bank, where we were staying.

After checking in, we went looking for a late night supper and ended up at a cheap mobile kebab stall that also sold beer. Who says I can’t show a girl a good time? We then walked over a bridge into the old city which looked wonderful at night. The large Xmas tree was lit in the Residenplatz next to the spotlighted Cathedral (with the Xmas market stalls shut down for the night) and nearby Mozartplatz with an empty, temporary ice rink next door to Mozart’s statue (1842). The main shopping lane, Getreidegasse was full of twinky shops with Xmas window decorations and settings. Above us lay the spotlighted fortress. It all looked like what a perfect town should look like at Xmas without the snow. At midnight, the streets were still full of people of all ages. There were no sign of gangs of pissed youth. We were impressed. Enjoying the ambience, it was past 1am by the time we walked back to the hotel.

Breakfast was thrown in. It was a great buffet of scrambled/fried eggs and ugly sausages, cold meat cuts and a variety of cheeses, dips, salad, rolls and breads, pastries, fruit sald and yoghurt and endless cappuccinos, chocolate, fruit juice etc. Even better, there were bottles of champagne to make Bucks Fizz. I looked at my watch. 9am local time. 8am English time. Then I took my watch off and forgot about the time. I can’t knock a hotel that gives you champagne as part of your breakfast and we treated ourselves to a couple of glasses, as you would. I was tempted to stay until the 11am cut-off, but was persuaded that we should actually go and see the city during daylight hours which were limited to between 9am and 6pm in November.

One of the joys of Salzburg is just to wander around and explore. Everything is within walking distance and there is plenty to see. We started with the St Sebastian Cemetery just off Linzergasse which was down the road from the hotel. It was a “colonnaded oasis of inner-city peace” (Rough Guide) full of wonderful baroque statues and gruesome skulls and skeletons. One emaciated figure of Death held an hourglass. The mausoleum of Archbishop Wolf Deitrich dominated the small grounds and nearby lay the graves of Mozart’s widow and father.

Across the Linzergasse, we climbed up to the Kapuzinerberg upon which stood a monastery. There were fine views of the city (both old and new) and the mountain backdrop. There were also paths into the woods. Just outside the convent was a Mozart Bust. We translated it as saying that he got the inspiration for some of his music.

Back down in Makartplatz, dominated by the Dreifaltigkeitskirche with its graceful curved exterior and oval dome, we found No 8. This is the site of Mozart-Wohnhaus, where the Mozart family lived between 1773 and 1787. It was actually bombed during the war. Now it’s a museum. We left the tourists to it. Its ironic that despite the fact that the influence of Mozart is everywhere, with Mozartplatz with its Mozart statue, the Mozarteum music academy, Mozart’s birthplace and residence, the city gave him short shrift during his lifetime and he buggered off to other countries as often as possible to make some decent cash. The city has even come up with ‘Mozart balls’ – a chocolate/ marzipan mix as major export.

A short stroll away from Makartplatz, lay the Schloss Mirabell and the Mirabell Gardens. The gardens were designed in 1730 and the green copper statue of Pegasus stands right outside the Schloss. Goat faced unicorns guard a wide staircase up to a rose filled high ground from where you can look down on the gardens and back to the old town. A local man came past dressed in traditional Austrian breeches, tweed jacket and black hat. He seemed surprised when we asked to take his photo.

Schloss Mirabell was originally built by Archbishop Wolf Deitrich as a palatial home for his mistress who had 12 of his children. It was revamped in the 18th Century and burnt down in the 19th Century. It does have however, two outstanding interior features. Firstly a smooth, pinkish, stone baroque marble staircase. “Plump cherubs lounge around on the balustrade, watched over by Greco-Roman gods and goddesses who occupy wall niches in the stairwell” (Rough Guide). This led up to a Marble Hall (Marmorsaal), a former, grandiose banqueting hall. It was now used for weddings and small classical concerts. The doors were shut when we got there, but we could here something going on inside. The doors opened. It was the end of a wedding ceremony and we had a few minutes to take in the lovely room (see my photos).

We crossed the Salzach River into the Altstadt which “represents one of the best examples of Baroque town planning anywhere in Europe” (Rough Guide) and entered the pedestrianised main shopping lane called Getreidegasse which was lined with opulent boutiques and characterised by overhanging wrought-iron shop signs. At No 9 was Mozart’s birthplace (Geburtshaus) where the musical prodigy lived until he was seventeen. I’d been inside before and been under-whelmed by the musical artefacts inside. Much more exciting was the ‘egg shop’ just down the street. This was a multi-roomed affair with large window displays of painted eggs – themes (Xmas, Easter, Halloween), designs, and multicolours. Thousands of them. All hand painted. It was one of the most beautiful shop displays I’d ever seen. The eggs started at about 4 Euros and went up.

Residenzplatz was originally the centre of the Archbishops’ residences. Today it was one half of the Xmas market where twinky stalls selling Xmas stuff or stalls selling food congregated around the town Xmas tree. Xmas lights were strung everywhere.

It was looked down upon by the 1614 Domkirke St Rupert, the Cathedral with horses and carriages outside to take you around the old town. Inside the building, we found a spacious nave and a series of side chapels. Best of all, there was a male choir belting out songs which gave the place real atmosphere. In front of the Dom was the other half of the Xmas market and the Franziskanerkirche.

At the bottom of the cliffs beneath the fortress was the Peterskirke (also known as Stiftskirche St Peter). It had a lovely small picturesque cemetery and we watched a gravedigger insert a coffin. As you do. Old catacombs were carved into the cliffs. We were enjoying the ambience of the old town that we couldn’t actually be bothered to climb up to the Fortress or catch the funicular. We had got great views in the morning and now the sun was setting.

The 17th Century baroque Schloss Hellbrunn lies only four km south of the Old Town, but it is the water gardens (Wasserspiele) that pulls in the tourists. It is full of trick fountains and water-powered figures. I had visited these in 1988 but unfortunately, they were closed in November.

All the Xmas lights came on and it all looked Christmas card perfect. As a treat, I let Lori loose on the Mozartplatz ice-rink for 90 minutes to get up by small kids who were obviously born on skates. This gave me an excuse to sit and down a few excellent cans of Weissbeer watching the locals at the market and take in the atmosphere.

We retired to a packed local restaurant and enjoyed traditional food (Schitizel) and then had a final stroll around the old town. I’m sure Salzburg looks pretty good during the summer Mozart festival, but it seems designed for Xmas scenes. Even with no snow, we felt as if we were inside a Hollywood stage set for a Xmas movie.

The next morning, we were up for breakfast at 7am and even turned down the champagne at that time of day. We caught a local bus to the airport. When we checked in, I discovered that they had the same liquid restrictions as the UK (Eindhoven hadn’t the month before). I had three bottles of wine and a few cans of Weissbeer in my hand luggage. There was no fuss. I was allowed to pack them in my backpack and then get a ‘fragile’ sticker and check the bag on at the special place. It all arrived intact at Stansted.

If you want a relaxing weekend with a bit of culture, lovely sights and shops, Salzburg is a lovely city to visit for a weekend, especially in December. If you skip the shopping, it’s a cheap weekend of just strolling and enjoying the old town. Recommended.